Day #185-186 Writing Through COVID-19: Warning: Getting Political

Last evening I looked at my phone and learned Ruth Bader Ginsburg had died. It felt like a gut punch. 

In the spring of 2016, Senator Grassley made his 99-county tour stop at Atlantic High School. Students and community members asked questions. After the auditorium cleared, I talked to the senator one-on-one, asking why he was stalling on Merrick Garland's nomination to the Supreme Court. He said it was important to delay confirmation until after the November election, to let the PEOPLE decide (as if the "people" had not, in fact, elected President Obama). 

I've never voted for Grassley myself, but until that spring, I did respect him as a man of conscience and decency. 

However, his refusal to bring the Garland nomination to the floor was, I believe, a step onto a slippery slope that has since become a free fall. In the past four years, I've watched Grassley's moral spine bend, curl, and ultimately dissolve. 

I want to think he will remember his claim that voting on a Supreme Court Justice in the year before a presidential election fails to "let the PEOPLE decide." In his own words, pushing through a Trump nominee six weeks before the election is not acceptable. 

Why am I cynical about what Grassley will do now?

We live in a time when politicians are no longer ashamed when confronted with their hypocrisy, a time when honesty and ethics are abandoned to win the approval of an unstable autocrat.  
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It's strange how a piece of sad news can overwhelm an otherwise happy day.

So let me refocus. 

My broadcast students posted a solid show Friday. Watch it here: The Eye of the Needle. I'm proud of their growth under this fall's challenging circumstances.

The yearbook crew is cranking out pages to finish our 2020 book. 

My Intro to Journalism kids went all-in on our Friday news quiz competition, with eighth-period knocking out a 544/600 score.

When the temperature warmed in the afternoon, my English 9 students asked to read outside. It was lovely. Yesterday they watched this film about identity (suggested by the friend I mentioned last Saturday), and on Friday they began writing honest, compelling essays about their own experiences hiding their true selves.

Somewhere in Friday's whirlwind of high-school teaching, I strapped on my accordion and played a mistake-riddled rendition of "Happy Birthday" for a colleague turning 29. 

I helped a senior fill out her first college application. 

Enough.
Be well.
Write.

Allison

Stuart and Harrison are hunting mule deer in Montana.

Sweet Wolf is in good hands with his adoring
(and adorable) parents.